Cloisonne enamel master class

During the four-hour workshop, time is devoted to cloisonné enamel, introduction to manufacturing technology in a historical perspective, which includes a presentation. The presentation is available in Georgian and English. And then the visitor makes jewelry, which repeats the the ornamental motifs of the cultural heritage of the occupied territories of Georgia. Information is shared through both supporting visual material and on-site storytelling and technique demonstrations.

The collection of Georgian Medieval Cloisonné Enamel is amongst the richest collections in the world. The earliest artefacts of cloisonné date to the 8th-9th centuries, however, the cloisonné incrustation with inlaid multicolored stones found in richly decorated objects discovered at Mtskheta (the dagger sheath from Mtskheta, 170-180 AD), is the closest prototype to this technique widely used in Medieval Ages, when similar to the Byzantine Empire the embellishment of church attributes with this particular technique became very common. The colour of the Georgian cloisonné enamel differs from the cloisonné enamel of other (Byzantine) countries. Among the colours of Georgian enamel, the so-called flesh colour and transparent green are peculiar. According to Shalva Amiranashvili, flesh colour was obtained by mixing manganese in enamel colours. The art of cloisonné enamel flourished especially in the 10th-12th centuries and apparently stopped in the 15th century. Georgian enamel technology, restored after a five-century hiatus, is gaining more and more popularity.